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Ben-Hur

Oscar™ Best Picture - Winning Movies

Ben-Hur

1959

William Wyler

Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins, Stephen Boyd, Haya Harareet ...

7.9

67,908

Adventure. Drama Anno Domini: the seventh year of Augustus Caesar's reign. In the Roman province of Judea, Jews return to the city of their birth for the census. A bright star in the night over Bethlehem marks the birth of Jesus Christ. Years later, Roman commander Messala (Stephen Boyd), who was brought up in Judea, takes command of the Roman garrison in Jerusalem. His Jewish boyhood friend Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) greets him. Messala is ... [+]

	Author	Review
United States	Bosley Crowther The New York Times	"Mr. Wyler and his (...) producers have smartly and effectively laid stress on the powerful and meaningful personal conflicts (...) in this old heroic tale."	POS
United States	Ronald Holloway Variety	"A majestic achievement, representing a superb blending of the motion picture arts by master craftsmen."	POS
United States	Dave Kehr Chicago Reader	"Entire new frontiers in boredom were opened up by this MGM whopper from 1959."	NEG
United Kingdom	David Parkinson Empire	"Little can come close to captivating the grandeur and epic quality of William Wyler's magnificent bum number. (...) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of five)"	POS
United States	Peter Rainer Los Angeles Times	"If we later came to realize that movies could be a whole lot better than 'Ben-Hur', that still doesn't detract from the enjoyment the film still provides."	POS
United States	Jack Harrison The Hollywood Reporter	"An extraordinary motion picture, greater in dimension and significance than any similar film of our time, 'Ben-Hur' is more spectacular than any of the previous spectacles"	POS
United Kingdom	Martin Chilton Telegraph	"Powerful and gripping. And as biblical epics go (...) it's hard to beat (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Time Out	"Although a bit like a four-hour Sunday school lesson, 'Ben-Hur' is not without its compensations, above all, of course, the chariot race"	POS
United Kingdom	Peter Freedman Radio Times	"There's no denying that the race that forms the famous climax is one of the most iconic sequences in Hollywood history (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United Kingdom	Nick Hilditch BBC	"A relentlessly epic 212 minutes of screen time (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS

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